Reverse Tension
by UnhealthyVirtue
Summary: There once was a man; slick as a snake - and a young woman; as helpless as can be. Like predator to prey, these two are; What will become of the two when the snake returns in a state in such contrast to when the two first clashed?


_Hey guys! I realize I never continued my Devil May Cry fanfiction, and I'm very sorry for that, honest._  
_I acted upon writing that on the spur of the moment; so as I read over things and thought about things, I realized that there's quite a lot of mistakes - time and date wise - all to the point things don't make much sense._

_I'm sorry to say, but I'll be discarding it._  
_Whether or not I restart it correctly or not is beyond me._  
_School has started, and I've little time for a lot these days, seeing as how I want to keep the grades up as high as possible._  
_So far everything's an A except in one class; even then, though, its a B, so things are great._

_Hopefully you'll take a liking to this Thor/Avengers fanfiction!_

* * *

The past week had been pleasantly calm and smooth; no rude souls to plague her train of thought, and no ridiculously complex orders to blow up the little confidence she had in herself.

Considering the shop only had about seven minutes until it officially closed, she took it upon herself to get ready to close up. No one ever came the last ten minutes of the shops hours, so why not?

The raven-haired maiden untied the crisp, white apron adorned in minty speckles from her waist, and proceeded to top the round tables with its matching chairs. She hadn't even gotten close to stacking the first chair without earning herself a bad cut. As the chair slid down smoothly, wood dragging against her skin – her attempt at setting the chair fluently to the adorning table came to a failure as a rogue chip of wood stuck out of the chair's leg, puncturing her pale skin.

The sharp pain earned her reflexes a rogue turn for measures as she dropped the chair just before it was in close enough proximity to make a safe landing. Just as it slipped from her fingers however, slipped in a customer – the jingling of bells against an opening and closing door assured so. Great.

_Such great timing!_

She couldn't tend to the customer with bleeding flesh, oh no, so reluctantly and frantically she rushed behind the counter to the sink, all while yelping in unwelcome stutters, "W-welcome! –Please, e-excuse me—_or don't mind me at all_– either is fine; I just had a little accident." The ravenette explained over the roaring faucet. "Feel free to take a seat; I'll take your order in a moment."

"Don't strain, dear," Said an alluring voice; soft in sound, yet firm in tone.

As concerned the stranger may sound – falsely concerned or not, the waitress didn't hear it.

The water that rushed from the small porcelain sink soon came to a sudden stop – followed by the waitress as-quick-as-can-be, drying off her hands. As she made sure the minor wound was alright and frozen in terms of active blood flow, she walked towards the customer with a pace so urgent, anyone could tell she was very devoted to her job and/or used to things like this happening. "Sorry about that, I..—" Her words cut short the moment her hazel hues finally looked to him.

His appearance was so distinctive, so... _Unique_. She wasn't quite sure _how_ to feel. Even so, that didn't mean she didn't react. A klutz like her could only react to things – and in such ridiculous ways.

Not only did her words come to a suggestive, sudden stop, but her face showed obvious shock for how graceful he looked. Clad in such ceremonial outfit, yet in its own way, casual. Most of it black; with the exception of the forest green vest underneath the black blazer he wore – a black tie underneath it. In his left breast pocket peaked out a silky handkerchief; the same color as the vest.

It all already looked wonderful in his slightly smaller than medium form – which by the way, held an amazing posture. Something you don't see every day.

And then there was his actual physical appearance.

His skin as pale as her own skin, majestic, jet black hair slicked back so fluently, and so much longer than the average male. Then there were his eyes. Such a beautiful shade of green – she considering him so fortunate to have been born with such an ungodly beautiful eye color. So attracting they were; she hadn't realized she was staring so intently; so openly into his eyes. When she came to, she found the man staring back at her with a bit of a satisfied smile subtly altered his thin lips.

As if a reaction like this wasn't new. If that was really the case, then it seemed he the type to take these positive, self-esteem-building facts about him and wear his boast for them on his sleeve. That wasn't a very flattering trait…

No matter. The last thing she was here for was deciding what kind of people she would and wouldn't like or date or anything else along those lines. There was never anyone she could feel attracted to enough to fall victim to this terrible disease called love.

Nevertheless, she hitched realizing the entranced stare was this noticeable, "E-excuse me, I–"

He raised his hand up a bit; the gesture signaling her to calm herself. "Quite alright, young maiden."

How peculiar. Never did any of her customers tell her it was alright – at least not like this. Something just felt different the way he reassured her. She nodded. "I can't seem to remember you visiting any time before – or _anywhere else_ in New York for that matter.. -would you like a menu?"

The man's face quarreled with some sort of internal struggle among trying to make sense of what the café had to offer. He couldn't tell apart good from bad – in all honesty he's never taken much time to learn much of the commodity of this place; or any other, for that matter. A menu would be nice, but he still wouldn't make sense of it. "I thank your offer, but to quite frank, it wouldn't do me any better – for you see, I'm not altogether accustom to things like this. Care to make a suggestion?"

His willingness to take her word for good tastes probably wasn't the greatest idea. Casually flattering maybe, but alarming on her part. The people around her always made her feel like what she chose to take spin on things were always… wrong or… unacceptable. Usually, she would ignore them – even if her feelings weren't dealing well beneath the calm, uncaring façade she liked to believe was completely real – but the fact that someone so visually stunning and pretty intimidating for a first meeting asked for opinion… It didn't spell out good news for her, as she only ever expected the worse. "_A-?_ Are you.. _Sure?_"

"But of course, maiden. I would not waste breath if my intension wasn't yet clear." His head seemed to cock at a slight angle as he explained his certainty.

The way he spoke – there wasn't really much he was explaining, yet the way he placed his words made him sound like poetry. It made her mourn for the inability to find people of such vocabulary more often. They didn't really exist – and even if they did, her self-esteem probably wouldn't allow her to go to such lengths. No one would enjoy her company; no one ever did. It should probably stay that way.

"I should warn you; I'm not a very exciting person… But if you honestly insist, I-.. I usually go with simpler brews with little hints of vibrant flavors. Say.. –Green tea. Not all green tea tastes the same; I primarily go for the earthier tastes. Even though the taste is faint, it tastes wonderful. I prefer to add droplets of passion to it for the vibrant hint." Talking about it made her want some now; sadly she couldn't have that.

"There you have it, then." He mused as she gazed off into space in thought of the warm beverage.

Her face came to that of much surprise hearing him agree so quickly. "—I should also add that people are quick to sort my enjoyments as odd and boring, I- I don't want you making a decision based on someone of my comforts."

"Perhaps your diversity is merely something the other goers simply cannot comprehend – in other words, finer." The man adds.

Her hazel eyes widen a bit. Niceness like this was always new to her. One could only imagine what kindness like this could be doing to her from someone as seemingly upper-class as this man was. "I-I'm not sure about that." She said before suddenly turning and tending to the mechanical machines used to brew the tea.

The man's dark brows furrowed. "What ever could you mean? Is there a reason you feel mankind is so against what you take pleasure in?"

Such an odd question- and deep, even. "—No."

"No? Reasoning is nothing without an actual reason, little fly."

Little fly? Was that.. Some sort of soft insult?  
Sadly, it wasn't surprising. She knew this meeting seemed too nice.  
It was okay, though. This much was always expected – and compared to other insults and downgrading, this was nothing.

"I don't know—I mean- there just isn't – it's probably just my imagination, or what I want to believe. I don't know, alright?" There are all kinds of things washing over her thoughts. Things she never liked to think about or acknowledged.

The man blinked in astonishment. He could honestly say he wasn't expecting such a reaction. "Relax, maiden, I aimed not for my intentions to anger you in any way. T'was merely small talk. No more, no less. Do accept my apology, miss..?"

He got no answer from the ravenette. With her back turned to him as she tended to his order, she had no idea he was asking for her name. She only heard it as him saying sorry and addressing her as 'miss' in place of whatever her name was.

Since her attention was not among him to see his obvious intake of a failed attempt, he inhaled and released silently – fixing his suit as he looked around with a look that screamed 'well, then' whilst he did so.

As he looked back to the waitress, she was approaching him with his warm beverage. "Hopefully it isn't too bad," she muttered.

"—Did you use little effort, or leave mistakes that sought out to leave unfixed?"

"N-No! Of course not –"

"Then it should be fine, if not ambrosial." He mused before picking up the mug and taking a sip.

The tension over something as meager in importance as the way some drink tasted was ridiculous – but it was ridiculous traits like this she possessed that she hated about herself. Never did she ever realize how much she disliked them, not until time came into play for her to notice them. _Like now._

"—And that might I say, is in fact – remarkable."

The ravenette almost had to double-take. Did he really approve? Astonishing… "Do you really think so?" She asked with an expression so much brighter than before now, it was almost as if the fidgety girl from before took a short vacation. The man in black couldn't help it; a low chuckle emitted from him, taking in her facial expression. "Like a child in a candy store, you are, girl. Come now, is it really so necessary to become so awestruck?"

Her oh-so-bright expression soon died down a couple notches as she looked away, only for the man to chuckle again, "Do excuse me again – I mean you no harm." He said, just before taking another sip; longer this time.

By this time, the waitress left the counter to tend back to the tables in need of chairs to top it before she could close. After this man finished his drink, that is. This time, she remembered to be careful. There was no need for anymore nasty cuts – no matter how minor they were, they were never very nice to look at.

The rest of that time was followed by nothing but silence. He drank the rest of his tea; she flipped and stacked chairs onto the tables. By the time she finished, he was already done; he spent his waiting time watching her stack the remaining tables seeing as how it took him little less than half the time to finish his tea.

After completing this simple task, she was a bit startled to find him still there, let alone find him just watching like that. –And judging by the dark chuckle falling from him as she found him as so – she found it safe to say that her being startled was clear for all to see.

If only she could remember how she reacted…

"I expected you to have left when you finished.." The waitress admitting, nervously scratching at her jawline.

"To leave without paying you for your services?"

"-People usually leave the bill when it's this late – and past closing time." She added, returning to him and taking the cup, proceeding to wash it. "—It's alright, though."

"How much will it be, then?"

The faucet was running now; she made note to speak loud enough to be heard over the thing. "Four fifty."

He paid the rightful amount – afterwards, he stood. As he made sure his attire was still as crisp and clean as when he arrived, he noticed how dark it had gotten. "You have a transport home, do you not? It's quite dark out – and New York isn't the safest haven to reside in."

It isn't that bad, she thought. That is until realization washed over that there was always at least one person in the paper somewhere who's been killed. Or so it seemed. Even so, for him to show this concern for her was so odd, it made her uncomfortable. "Yes, I do."

"Good. It wouldn't be very easy on my conscience – leaving a girl so delicate to find her way home in the dark. Humans have the indecency to be rather nasty," The jingling of bells sounded, followed by a short pause, and the man slipping into the night.

In this pause, the waitress waved in a way that could easily be marked as awkward after he bid his farewell. He made it sound like he'd never come around again. A pity, actually.

_For once, the waitress actually dreaded being left by a stranger somewhere deep inside._

Peculiar.

* * *

_Like a lone, lost ember buried under dead ash, her interest once ignited only to be swept away yet again._

_It was probably best this way._


End file.
